


Nods

by orphan_account



Category: Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Gen, angsty angsty, im sorry race, my first fic lol, sad race :(
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-07
Updated: 2020-08-07
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:13:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 3,947
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25761925
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: racetrack higgins comes from an abusive family, causing him to be closed off and defensive around others, but that changes when albert dasilva introduces himself to race one day during lunch (high school au)
Kudos: 11





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> helllloooo! this is like my very first fic i’ve published so i’m sorry if it’s not too good, i just love race and wanted to write about him, so please enjoy! <33

racetrack higgins never had any friends throughout high school so far. don’t get him wrong, lots of people tried, but they all gave up due to his closed off personality and quietness. he wasn’t always like this. in elementary he was the popular kid and class clown and was friends with everyone in the school. that was before his step dad moved in, ruining his life, causing him to be like this.  
race was sitting down on the same spot on the grass during lunch like he had for the past two years picking at some gross cafeteria food when a red-headed boy quickly bounded up to him making race flinch. the boy immediately slowed down when race flinched.  
race was used to random people coming up to him during lunch feeling sorry for him. so he kept picking at his lunch when the boy said,  
“heya, you okay?”  
race muttered something incomprehensible making the boys face drop. he glanced up at the boy. he knew his group. race had always been slightly envious of his group, their table was always noisy with laughter and pranks, and everyone seemed so close. the entire table seemed to be watching race and the boy.  
“i’m albert, mind if i sit with you?” race shrugged, knowing albert would probably forget about him the next day.  
albert grabbed races arm, making him flinch hard.  
“sorry.. uh, why are you wearing a sweatshirt? it’s like 90 degrees out?”  
race glared at albert and pulled his arm away, making him drop the subject.  
“anyway, uh you like stories? i have tons about my friends. they’re pretty cool, you’d like em..” for the rest of lunch, albert told funny stories about his friends and how awesome they were. race barely looked at him and responded with nods, shrugs, or one word. by the end of lunch, race knew about finch and mush and how he had tped oscar and morris delancys house, and other wacky stories about people named jack, romeo, specs, smalls, katherine, davey, sarah and a lot more names that he couldn’t remember.  
race was kinda sad when the bell rung, but he didn’t show it. albert waved a goodbye to race and race just nodded in acknowledgment.

every other day, albert would come up to race and talk to him about everything, school, friends, family. race started giving him longer replies and started looking up at albert. this was the longest anybody had ever tried to talk to him, and race had laughed for the first time in a really long time. he immediately stopped himself though. he can never let his guard down and couldn’t trust anybody, no matter how funny or charismatic they were. albert was also in races math and english class and went out of his way to crack jokes to race whenever he could. on the days albert wasn’t with race and was with his friends, race kept on reminding himself not to get attached to the boy and that soon enough he will give up. they all did.  
one day during lunch albert perked up and told race, “hey, you’ve heard enough about my friends, why don’t ya meet em!”  
“uhh, sure,” race learned that he should always say yes to people or they would do stuff to him.  
albert led race to the loud table which immediately went silent the moment they approached the table.  
“everyone meet race! race these are my friends!” albert announced.  
race tensed up and didn’t say a word. he almost hid behind albert.  
“uuhh, race, this is jack, crutchie, henry, elmer, specs, mush..” each boy waved when their name was called. by the end of the introductions race just nodded at them all. he sat at the end of the table when the chattering and laughter started back up. why did he agree to this?  
people started to ask him a ton of questions, other people started to laugh super hard. one boy was standing on the table. the commotion started to make races ears ring and he screwed his eyes shut, feeling himself breath harder and harder. the blood drained from his face and he hunched over. the table went silent at races hyperventilating and stared at him. when he started to breath harder albert went up to race and gently tried to help him stand up and led him away from the table, whispering comforting words.  
“it’s okay, race. i’m here. no ones going to hurt you.”  
race calmed down and looked up at albert with big eyes and flinched away from him. this is what he got for trusting people.  
“please don’t talk to me.” race whispered and walked towards his spot on the grass and hung his head. his ears were still ringing.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im sorry if there is mistakes in hereee!

albert didn’t come up to race for the rest of the week and things were back to normal. no more funny jokes during math or making fun of the english teachers hair. no more wacky stories.  
around a week later race was sitting in the back of english doodling as usual when the teacher announced a project.   
“this project will be done in pairs!” the teacher announced. race wasn’t worried though, he always got to work alone during projects. the teachers always let him. she started calling the names of pairs. race was tuning her out until she said, “albert dasilvia and an- racetrack higgins!”  
race looked up from his notebook, bewildered.   
“now everyone go to your partner and start brainstorming ideas!”   
race immediately shuffled up to the teacher.  
“uh, miss, can i work alone?” he said quietly.   
“race, you’ve worked alone all year, and i noticed that boy albert talking to you for a bit. you need to make some friends.” the teacher said knowingly. race looked up, his eyes pleading, but the teacher didn’t give in.   
“now go, he’s waiting for you.”  
race shuffled to the desk where albert was waiting and nodded.   
“hey race..” race turned away from albert.   
“i- i’m sorry for before, i shoulda known that my table was like, a little-a lot rowdy, i truly had no bad intentions.” the boy sounded sincere, shocking race. race turned towards albert and simply nodded again.   
“okay then! uh, let’s get started!”   
the two started brainstorming ideas and race talked a lot more than he ever had to any student at the school, about english of course, until they had a solid idea.   
“okay, so do you want to go to mine or your house to work on it?” race immediately looked up at him.  
“not mine, not mine,” he said quickly, “let’s go to your house.” he said more slow.   
“alrighty then, saturday, tomorrow, at 11 good?”   
race nodded, exchanged numbers with albert, and packed up his stuff to go back to his seat. 

the next day rolled around and race had woke up early. he hadn’t gone to anyone’s house since grade school. he put on the sweatshirt he wore everywhere on top of his only shirt and his regular jeans that were falling a part.   
“i need to go to someone’s house to work on a project, sir.” his father looked up and growled.   
“be home by 3.”  
race simply nodded like he always did and made his way out the front door. he double checked his old phone to make sure he was walking the right way.   
he made it to alberts at 11 sharp and texted albert that he was there. the door quickly opened and albert popped out, a large smile on his face.   
“heya, racer!” race nodded at albert and waiting for the signal to come inside. albert had a nice house. a really nice house. and a very comfy couch too. race was shocked. albert threw race a bag of chips and a fruit roll up before saying,  
“let’s begin!”   
race actually had a really good time for the first time in a long time. albert cracked jokes and worked on the project while they listened to musical show tunes (albert was a theatre kid along with his group). they ended up finishing the project at 1 with two hours to spare.   
“let’s put on a movie!” albert said after they sat there in silence.   
“you choose the movie, i’ll make us some popcorn.” race nodded and headed to the couch and gripped the remote. he decided on the movie ‘newsies’ made in 1992. he’d watched it once before and loved the story. albert squealed when he saw the movie title.   
“YES! i LOVE this movie, the music SLAPS.” race let himself put his guard down, only for a moment to laugh, before a voice in his head told him not to. he stopped.   
“so he does have emotions! ha! would never have thought!” albert joked. race looked down, embarrassed.   
they started the movie and soon enough race fell asleep. i mean, how could he not? the soft, comfy couch with a warm blanket, with the room filled with the warm smell of popcorn.   
race woke up to the sound of albert opening the fridge. had he fallen asleep? the movie was over and he noticed that moana was playing. albert noticed race was up.   
“and the king rises from his slumber.” albert over dramatically bowed.   
“what time is it?” race asked, rubbing sleep from his eyes.  
“like, 3:50.”   
race jumped up, “oh no, oh no, i said i’d be home by 3.”   
“just tell your parents you fell asleep!”  
“it doesn’t work like that!” race snapped. he grabbed his backpack and ran out the front door, praying his father wouldn’t get angry at him. unfortunately when he arrived at his house, his prayers weren’t received.   
“hello antonio,” race winced at his real name, “you’re late.” his fathers voice boomed when race walked through the front door, panting. he had clearly drank, as there were empty bottles on the ground along with the one in his hand.   
“yes sir, i accidentally fell asleep.”  
“i told you to be home by three. one simple rule.” his fathers voice grew louder.   
“it was a mistake, i swear.” race pleaded.   
“don’t talk back to me!” his father yelled and slapped race square across his face. he picked up an empty bottle from the ground and threw it at race. the glass shattered into a million pieces and pierced races skin, causing him to fall down. he backed himself into the corner. his father stomped up to him, the sound of glass breaking under his feet and started kicking race mercilessly and throwing bottles at him. race curled himself into a ball, wishing this was all over.   
“no dinner or lunch money for you for a week!” his fathers voice boomed over the sound of breaking glass, “and no more phone for you! you need to learn to obey me!” he continued to kick race, not listening to the frantic apologies and screams until race went unconscious. 

race woke up on the floor with glass surrounding him, his entire body hurt in a million ways. he looked up and saw his mom crying on their old couch and his father looking at him.   
“good, you’re up, now clean up this mess you made.”   
race quietly nodded struggled to get up and limped towards the broom closet, dripping blood on the floor.   
“and give me your shoes, antonio, you’ll get them back in time for school.” race squeaked an okay and handed his shoes and socks to his step father. he winced in pain when he stepped on the glass ridden floor.   
by the time he finished cleaning up, he could barely stand and luckily made it to his small room before collapsing on his small mattress. he completely broke down and sobbed for the rest of the night, getting zero sleep.   
the next day, sunday, his father had drank too much again and a similar event happened when he found a singular shard of glass left on the floor. race didn’t even cry that night, numb to the events.


	3. Chapter 3

race tried his best to hide the cuts and bruises on his body, but he couldn’t exactly hide his face or limp. his feet still hurt when he walked.  
he kept his head down the whole day so far. he had managed to stay clear of any questions until lunch.  
race at down at his usual spot, his body aching and his stomach growling. he had to get used to the feeling of hunger for the rest of the week. he saw alberts shoes approach him and he automatically flinched, making him hang his head even lower.  
“heya racer! why weren’t you answering your phone? oh yeah good job on the project by the way, we’ve gotta ace it!” he noticed race hiding his face, “hey, what’s wrong?” he said softly.  
race reluctantly raised his head to look at albert and albert let out a small gasp at the cuts and bruises.  
“oh no, are you okay?” race shrugged.  
“do you, do you want to talk about it?” race quickly shook his head no, not wanting to think about it, and albert nodded in understanding.  
“here, let me get you some help.” albert walked away and race fought to hold back his tears.  
albert approached with a boy that was race recognized from his table as buttons. albert was talking in a low voice to buttons.  
“this is buttons, he has first aid for ya.”  
race nodded and kept his head down, embarrassed. he shouldn’t have showed albert. at least he doesn’t know about the rest of his body.  
buttons gently raised races head and race could tell he tried not to show his surprise. race tried to look everywhere but buttons eyes as buttons gently applied some gel to races face.  
“ya gotta be careful, these things could become infected quick.” race nodded.  
“buttons is like, the doctor of the group, he can fix anything!” albert added enthusiastically. buttons blushed.  
“hey, do you have food?” albert asked after buttons finished and was packing his stuff. race shook his head, looking to the side.  
“here, you can have my sandwich.” race would usually say no, but his stomach said otherwise so he took it gratefully and scarfed it down fast.  
“why are you doing this?” race finally asked in a very quiet voice that you could easily miss.  
“why wouldn’t i? that’s what friends are for right?” race smiled slightly. a friend. he hadn’t had one since grade school.  
don’t trust anyone he reminded himself and looked back down.  
the bell rung and albert waved a swift goodbye before running towards his next class. race sighed and limped away. 

albert was especially nice that week and brought an extra sandwich every day for race. he had even brought a different person from his group every day so race would feel more comfortable sitting at their table. race felt especially clicked with mush, finch, jack, and romeo. he soon started bring two people a day so race would be more comfortable with multiple people close to him. soon enough, race had met everyone and was ready to sit at the table again.  
“you ready?”  
“as i’ll ever be,” race whispered and limped towards the table. everyone waved a gentle hello when the two arrived and race noticed they were a lot more quiet than usual. he internally smiled. albert really cared about him. maybe trusting people wasn’t so bad after all. albert still brung race a sandwich even though race got lunch money now. he told him to save it for something nice and wouldn’t take no for an answer. race made it through the whole lunch, and although he still flinched at sudden movements and was tense, he made it.  
he felt alberts place a hand on race’s shoulder when the bell rung, “good job, racer.” race smiled at him and headed towards his class.  
everything went well for race throughout the week. he sat at the lunch table, and though he didn’t talk much, he loved listening to the group talk.  
on friday, race arrived at the lunch table. he heard a few people say a mindless hello to him and he sat down at the edge. race watched as mush ran around with daveys glass tupperware while davey was yelling for mush to give it back. the people of the table were cheering for mush until he tripped and dropped the container. the glass shattered everywhere. race saw the shards of glass and could see his dad standing over them, yelling at him and throwing the glass at him. he screwed his eyes shut and started the hyperventilate again. he could hear the glass shattering in his head and his shrill screams as his father kicked him.  
no, no, i’m sorry, i’m sorry, i didn’t mean it  
the noises became louder and louder and his ears started ringing.  
“race! it’s okay, you’re safe.” races breathing started to slow down. he opened his eyes to see albert.  
“here come with me..” he followed albert away from the glass.  
“i- i’m sorry i don’t know what happened i just-“  
“it’s okay, race. you need to tell me what going on, i can help you.”  
race sighed, “okay,” he said in defeat. he reached out his arm for albert to take it and flinched when albert gripped it. albert slowly pulled up the sleeve of his sweatshirt to reveal dozens of scratches, cuts, scars, and bruises.  
“my step-father, he drinks a lot, and when he does he,“ race paused, “he hurts me and my mom for the smallest reasons. he throws his, his bottles at us and hurts us real bad,” race confessed, “that’s why i don’t go by my real name, antonio, it, uh, brings back too much..” race hung his head in shame.  
“oh, race..” albert reached out and hugged race and race started to cry.  
“i’m just so broken, albert.”  
“it’s okay race, you’ll be safe soon,” albert comforted race, but he didn’t believe it.


	4. Chapter 4

the weekend didn’t go well for race. his step-father brought over a lot of his friends to drink. their loud voices and laughter made race shudder.  
that night race couldn’t walk to his room he was so hurt, so he lay on the floor  
unconscious in a puddle of blood and glass. he looked so tiny.  
he had a heavy limp when he came back to school the next day and a few people asked him about it, but he knew they didn’t care and ignored them. during free period, the boy sat was sat down next to a corner to study when he heard some voices from the other side of the corner. race couldn’t help but listen in  
“dang it, i owe albert twenty bucks now.”  
“ha i know, i never woulda guessed that he would actually succeed to become friends with race!”  
“i know, people have tried, i don’t know how he did it!”  
race got up and ran as fast as he could with his limp to get away, his tears already starting to fall. this is what he got for trusting people. he thought albert really cared about him. he told albert his deepest secret. his real name! but all race was was a stupid bet for some money. he should have trusted his guts. all people are bad in some way. he silently cried in the back of his geography class next period. he ignored the stares. during lunch he went to the library in hopes of no one finding him.  
albert ran in, panting. race looked down, trying not to draw attention to himself. still, albert saw race and went up to him. race turned away.  
“racer, what happened?” race flinched.  
“you did,” race muttered, trying to hold back more tears.  
“i don’t understand? why are you like this?”  
“no, why are you like this? i know, albert. i know that all i am is 20 dollars to you. that all i am is a bet!” race started to cry, “i thought that you really cared about me! that you were my friend! i truly trusted you! i opened up to you, told you my real name, but clearly i don’t matter to you. i’m better off invisible with no friends.”  
“race, i-“ but before albert could say anything to race, he limped away. by then the entire library was staring and giving albert dirty looks. race collapsed in the middle of the hallway and broke down. just wanting to disappear. his entire body throbbed and his head gave him excruciating pain.  
i just want to die he thought over and over again until he went unconscious. 

race woke up in a random couch with a few people standing over him. he recognized them to be jack, buttons, and albert.  
“heya, race, you’re really hurt, you should go back to sleep.” buttons said softly.  
race tried to sit up but it hurt too much.  
“where am i? what happened?”  
“you kinda went unconscious in the middle of the hallway....” albert said.  
“thanks for not taking me to the hospital or something..” race said as he looked down. he noticed he was in some shorts and his sweatshirt was off, revealing his scars. he immediately tried to cover them with something.  
“it’s okay, race, buttons is treating them.”  
“i’m fine, you don’t have to, sorry for all this.”  
“we will help you,” jack spoke up.  
“but, but what about the bet?”  
“race, sure my first intentions when i first came up to you were because of the bet and i’m sorry for that, but i later realized that i truly wanted to be your friend, not just for 20 dollars, although that is a plus,” albert winked and race laughed, “but i’m really glad the bet was made, otherwise i wouldn’t have gotten to know you and seen how cool of a person you are.”  
race smiled.  
“what time is it?”  
“four pm..”  
“oh no, i gotta get home, i gotta get  
home!” race was trembling. buttons stopped him.  
“i’m not gonna let you go home ever again.” race was still trembling at the thought of what his father would do. he looked up at albert and tilted his head.  
“jacks adoptive mom, medda, she’s taken in a few children from abusive families, such as romeo and finch,” albert explained, “jack talked to her, and she wants you to move in too!”  
race stopped trembling. moving in with a better family sounded so nice. but what if his stepdad found him? he pushed the thought away.  
“i’d, i’d love to actually!” race sighed in relief. no more bottles. no more limps. no more yelling. no more anything.  
“thank you, for everything really..” race looked up at albert, tears forming.  
albert responded with a nod and everyone started laughing. and for the first time since grade school, race felt actually happy.


	5. Chapter 5

ONE YEAR LATER  
race ran up behind albert at the lunch and scared him.  
“race, you ASSHOLE!” race stuck out his tongue at albert and laughed.  
“hey race!” called mush as race tossed him an apple.  
“yo race, what’s for lunch today?”  
“your mom!” no one at the table laughed.  
“wow, 10/10 joke, so original.” romeo deadpanned and the group burst out laughing.  
“wow i’m so very popular today!” race announced and stood up straight.  
“it’s my irresistible personality isn’t it?”  
“you keep dreaming!” someone said and race playfully scoffed and laughed.  
he sat down on the table and smiled. if you told race one year ago that this is where he’d be, he wouldn’t have believed you. race was truly happy now, and no longer the boy who only nods.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you so much for reading! i tried my best on thissss,,, thanks you! don’t forget to follow my tumblr clearly-broadway ::))) soz this chapter was kinda shorttt


End file.
